THE OTAGO GOLDFIELDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 17

THE OTAGO GOLDFIELDS.

I. Those who have followed the exhaustive reports of our special commissioner on the goldfields should have no difficulty in satisfying themßftlves as to the

exact condition of the gold mining- industry* in Otago. It must- be at once clear that the working-miner, as he has come Idown to ns from the early days, regarded as an independent or important factor in, the maintenance arid . expansion of the industry, has, practi- • caUy ceasedto exist; -The future may, • perhaps, " though, the prospect is not inspiriting, by- the 'discovery of fields -now unexplored, admit him once ' more into the industrial co-partnery from .. which he,, has been excluded by the creation of circumstances irresistible as the operation of natural' . laws. In, a day now past there was frequent" and generous recompense for ' the hardships he endured.. and/" the dangers, to which, he voluntarily exposed . himself. To-day his' labours,- though arduous and prolonged, are for the most part but poorly rewarded,, arid there is little to tempt him -to a re-" newal of those hardy enterprises that have so worthily associated his name -with the earlier history of the colony. Specific instances have been given by our special commissioner of the laborious efforts of - the working miner to adapt himself to the altered circumstances of the day, to overcome the difficulties that have grown up out of the new order of things, and ■control the forces that seem to have J decreed his extinction, And in, the instances referred to he has been compelled to submit to the inevitable. The ', industry has entered on its,second stage of development ;- all the old, conditions on which success depended have peared, the earlier methods of working have ceased to be profitable, and in • numerous instances impossible, and even • those of a comparatively later date must in a little time cease to meefrthe* emergencies of the hour. Except .in those instances where the ground is rich or comparatively so, and previously unworked, the water supply plen.tiful and the other conditions of working favourable, the system of groundeluicing, in' which fio many small parties of miners in the interior are engaged, will not continue to pay. The hard experience of- later, years has driven home to the' minds of miners the unpleasant fact that inability to treat ground rapidly and in large quantities means labour poorly requited —an unceasing round of drudgery without either present or prospective hope of adequate reward. In the interior or* Otago the circumstances of this class .. of miners are . rendered still more Unfavourable by the absence of railway Communication, their consequent re- ' xnoteness from markets, and their inability to avail themselves of the supplementary assistance Ithey might otherwise derive from the .cultivation, of the soil. - -Orivthe other hand, where • fcmall parties of miners are in a position io work their ground" by the hydraulic elevating r.system they can. -in almost ©very instance command large returns for their labour and ■ capital }

indeed, there is not a class of people in the colony who represent at once a more ideal state of comfort' and independence than they do. Speaking generally, their average earnings are larger, more assured, and less liable to fluctuation or derangement than perhaps those of any other class of the community. The number of such people could be multiplied almost indefinitely goldfi elds, if only provision were .made for a larger and more', extensive .water., 1 supply. There are, as our special commissioner has .pointed out, large areas of ground ; in almost .every district 'on the goldfields; that might, were water available, maintain' a numerous mining population for very many years to come, and, it might be added, absorb the bulk of the unemployed labour in the larger centres of population. Much of the ground in question is useless for purposes of cultivation, and if is a question worthy of consideration whether, where the conditions are favourable, it would not be wise on the part of the Government to devise some scheme of water supply that would permit of those auriferous wastes contributing to the national wealth and increasing the general comfort and independence of a considerable section of the population. This can be done only by the construction of dams for the conservation of flood water, or the enlargement of existing reservoirs of - small storage capacity, such, for instance, as that in the Dismal' Swamp, in the Teviot district, which might, at ,a com-paratively-small expenditure, be made capable of storing sufficient yratei to command a vast area of virgin ground. The water supply for mining purposes in the Manuherikia "Vallejr is" derived from the river of that d^me and its tributaries ; in fact every stream from end to end of the valley has been . tapped $ and during the periods of scarcity every drop of water available is appropriated, but during the spring and.summer flbods;lar*ge bodies of;wate;f run to waste that' might, under proper conditions, be' safely stored.' , This could be effected "by the erection ■of dams in suitable places to 'receive and hoid these superabundant waters.' Sites in the creeks themselves- are not always available, but in many instances they are, and in such cases the cost of construction would be much reduced. But perhaps the greatest difficulty to be encountered would be the great number of rights that exist for taking water by vai'ious means from those creeks. These rights are held on conditions of priority, which make it a rather difficult matter to measure the relative advantages which, would accrue to right-holders from conservation^ of water supply. The only way out of such a difficulty would be by the .enactment of legislation the minority of right - holders from any particular creek • to • submit to a majority desirous of constructing a dam for the conservation of water, and would at ' the same time create a board invested with powers to assess benefits and proportionate contributions. Water is to the goldftelds what blood is to the human system ; without^ it there can be no vigorous industrial life, no steady growth or development, nothing beyond the feeble and half-despairing efforts that at present distinguish so large a portion of those- engaged in the mining industry in Otago.